Roberto murdered by his son and wife in Nova Zemblastraat

Roberto Campagne, a 51-year-old man from Amsterdam, was shot dead in August 2017 inside a home on Nova Zemblastraat in Amsterdam-West. His body was not found immediately. It remained inside the apartment for several days, wrapped in plastic sheeting or carpet-like material, after his son Ferjo C. and his former partner Trijn R. tried to make the body disappear. A nephew of Roberto was approached and asked whether he could help get rid of the body, but he refused and eventually contacted the police. On the evening of Sunday, 20 August 2017, police found Roberto’s body inside the home. It later became clear that he had already been shot several days earlier, on 16 August 2017. The Public Prosecution Service argued that Ferjo C., who was 23 years old at the time, had shot his father after an argument in the apartment. Roberto was said to have been shot directly in the face. Ferjo C. and his mother Trijn R. stated that they had acted in self-defence. According to them, Roberto had been drunk, had used drugs, had sent threatening messages and had threatened them with a firearm and a knife. Ferjo said he heard a shot in the room where his father and mother were, entered the room, managed to take the firearm and was then attacked by his father with a knife. He then shot his father. The Public Prosecution Service did not believe this account and demanded a ten-year prison sentence for Ferjo C. for killing his father. A one-year prison sentence was demanded for Trijn R. for her role in trying to dispose of the body. The court ultimately reached a different conclusion. It ruled that it could not be proven that Ferjo C. had shot his father without necessity. The court accepted that he had acted in self-defence, because Roberto attacked him and he had no other way out at that moment. Trijn R. was not held responsible for the shooting itself. However, both Ferjo C. and Trijn R. were convicted for trying to make Roberto’s body disappear. The body had remained in the apartment for four days and money had been offered to a family member to remove it. Ferjo C. and Trijn R. were each sentenced to 11 months in prison for that. Roberto Campagne’s death was therefore not punished as murder or manslaughter, because the court accepted self-defence, but the attempt to dispose of his body was treated as a criminal offence.